La traduzione, come metodo di esercizio nell’apprendimento di una lingua, farà sicuramente parte della vecchia scuola, però, inserita in un contesto più vario di apprendimento, soprattutto con feedback in tempo reale, può sempre essere un utile esercizio di allenamento.
Consiglio una partecipazione attiva e visibile postando la tua versione tra i commenti in fondo a questa pagina. In questo modo riceverai un mio commento o suggerimento in tempo più o meno reale. Ma per chi non se la sente, si può semplicemente annotare la propria versione e controllarla attraverso i miei commenti lasciati per gli altri.
Ricorda l’importanza di immaginare un contesto reale nel quale la frase in questione avrebbe senso, prima di procedere con la traduzione.
Per chi è già ben avviato al livello intermediate (B1/B2)
Ecco la nuova frase:
Ho promesso loro che non avremmo toccato niente finché non fossero tornati, ma se non saranno qui entro le 14:00 cominceremo senza di loro.
Buon divertimento!
I promise them we wouldn’t touch anything until they got back, but if they aren’t here by 2 pm we will start without them
Hi Fede. You’ve forgotten the ‘d’ on “promise” but otherwise your version is perfect.
Well done 🙂
Hi prof,
” I promised them we wouldn ‘t touch anything untill they were back,(came back), but if they aren’t here by two o’clock, we Will start without them.”
Very good, Roby. I think “came back” sounds a bit more natural here than “were back”.
🙂
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Ho promesso loro che non avremmo toccato niente finché non fossero tornati, ma se non saranno qui entro le 14:00 cominceremo senza di loro.
I promised them we wouldn’t touch anything until they won’t came back, but if they are not here by 14:00 we’ll start without them.
How many traps have you set here, Tony?
1 – With the verb promised for reported speech: will -> would
2 – After until for reported speech -> we don’t use will/won’t -> we use past simple
3 – The first conditional statement at the end -> If this thing happens, that thing will happen.
Ah, but you forgot the most important trap of all, Claudio: “until” needs an affirmative verb, not negative! 😉
Indeed it was affirmative in my mind and I didn’t erase won’t from my sentence.
Always double-check before hitting the “send” button! 😉
P.S. I effect, that “won’t” is a bit out of place in your version!
I promised them we wouldn’t have touched anything until they got back, but if they aren’t here by 14 o’ clook we will start without them.
Thanks!
All good, folks, except for that “wouldn’t have touched”. Com’era la promessa in tempo reale? “We won’t touch anything until you come back”, cioè ‘future + presente’. Facciamo il ‘passo indietro’ e abbiamo ‘condizionale + past simple’ → “We wouldn’t touch anything until they got back.”
🙂
Hi
I promised them we wouldn’t have touched anything until they had come back, but if they won’t be here within two o’clock we start without them.
There’s a lot of confusion with your verb tenses here, I’m afraid.
Have a look at these two articles and then try again:
https://ingliando.net/2024/07/30/come-esprimere-in-inglese-il-futuro-nel-passato-con-would/
https://ingliando.net/2016/05/10/proposizioni-temporali-al-futuro-in-inglese-when-as-soon-as/
i promised them we would not touch anything until they came back but if they are not here by 2, we’ll start without them
Well done, Carla! You’ve got all your verb tenses perfectly here! 🙂
I promised them that we wouldn’t touch anything until they come back, but if they will be not here by 14:00 we’ll start without them.
You’re close, Luca, but not quite there with all your verb tenses.
until they come back → until they came back (reported speech rules)
they will not be here → they aren’t here (future proposition rules)
🙂
Ciao!
I promised them we wouldn’t touch anything until they had come back,but if they’re not here by two o’clock we’ll start without them.
Very good, Davide.
The past perfect isn’t really necessary in the middle: a past simple is sufficient. Think about the most likely original statement: “We won’t touch anything until you get back.” (future + present = conditional + past simple). However, if you were thinking in terms of “until you have got back”, then your past perfect is glorious! 😉
That’s what I was thinking about
Original”non toccheremo niente finché NON SARETE tornati…we won’t touch anything until you have come back
Reported speech…we wouldn’t touch anything until they had come back…am I wrong?
No, no. It’s perfectly correct.
My point is that in both Italian and English, the tendency is to avoid the “futuro anteriore/present perfect” option and use the “future/present” option whenever it’s possible. But both are correct.
Ho promesso loro che non avremmo toccato niente finché non fossero tornati, ma se non saranno qui entro le 14:00 cominceremo senza di loro.
I promised them we wouldn’t touch anything until they got back, but if they are not here by 2pm, we’ll start without them.
Più di un tranello questa volta, piccau!
Il gioco estivo dei tempi verbali!
Bravo! Hai superato la prova con “flying colours”!